Two autonomously (driverless) driven electric powered micro-mini vans are currently on their way from Italy to China. The project is attempted by Vislab, an Italian company spun off from research work done at the Italian University of Parma. The vans were sponsored by Piaggio, a company more commonly known for its scooters. But Piaggo also manufacturers small commercial vans. You can see why this is a good opportunity to show the world that Piaggio is more than just about scooters. Especially in China, where the small commercial van market is dominated by GM-Wuling.
The two autonomous electric vans will drive a total 13,000km from Parma, Italy to Shanghai, China. Barring any glitches / bad weather the convoy is expected to arrive in China by October. 4 RVs and 3 support trucks will also be part of the convoy. The autonomous vans are still not able to drive completely independent on their own, but will follow a lead van driven by a human driver. Inside each of the autonomous are two brave engineers sitting at the back seat monitoring the vehicle's progress and intervene if necessary. The convoy is currently stopping over at Budapest, Hungary. The vans will travel at 60km/h for 100km each day.
Solar panels will provide additional power to the many power hungry hardware on board.
No driver will be sitting in front throughout the journey.
You can follow the progress of the team online here. Other than the hardware onboard, not much is known about the autonomous vans. In these attempts, the software should be the main focus other than the pretty standard off the shelf hardware.
The Piaggio electric vans are not the only autonomous vehicles making headlines. Later this year, Audi of America will attempt to send a self driving Audi TTS to climb the Pikes Peak rally course. This is a far more complex attempt as the autonomous TTS will have to chart its own course on how best to climb up the Pikes Peak summit. The TTS will be guided by two main computers running Java Real Time (Jave RTS), one controlling the safety critical algo while the other runs the vehicle dynamics algo. A differential GPS system is supposed to keep the TTS within two centimeters of its mark on a normal course.
Computers and robots don't rely on visible spectrum, so let's paint the rear windscreen too.
Related link : Autonomous self-driving cars - DARPA Urban Challenge
1 comments:
interesting project by them actually, like it.
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